Tag Archives: Ben Washam

We can't let Friday slip by without a Chuck Jones cartoon. "Hare Conditioned" dropped into theaters nationwide on August 11, 1945 starring Bugs Bunny–"A rabbit's woik is never done"–and a character based on Throckmorton P. (Philharmonic) Gildersleeve, a popular character from radio's "Fibber McGee and Molly". Much hilarity ensues. Directed by Charles M. Jones with story by Tedd Pierce. Animation provided by Ken Harris, Ben Washam, Basil Davidovich and Lloyd Vaughn.

Original production cel from “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” directed by Chuck Jones.

This is what it took to complete the 24-minute film of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Gestation period eleven to fourteen months, finding the voices (Boris Karloff, June Foray and Thurl Ravenscroft,) recording them, writing the music (Albert Hague, music; Theodore Geisel, lyrics), drawing hundreds of key character layouts (Chuck Jones), designing a couple of hundred backgrounds (Maurice Noble), painting all of those backgrounds (Phil DeGuard), animating more than 15,000 usable drawings (Ken Harris, Abe Levitow, Ben Washam, Dick Thompson), and having them all painted, shot, and dubbed (putting sound effects, music, dialogue and film together.) Of the 15,000 usable drawings, approximately 40,000 to 50,000 were discarded. 250 backgrounds, 250 background layout drawings, 1,200 character layout drawings, 4,500 unusable and dispensable character layout drawings, sixty musicians for eight hours, a composer for six months, a sound editor for four weeks.

Character, not plot, evokes our film and book
memories. In designing and building the
characters that inhabit an animated film, Chuck Jones, along with his
tremendously talented crew (Maurice Noble, Ben Washam et al.), have always
relied on the character to provide the motivation that propels the action of
the film.

"Max the dog has a skimpy, scraggly, horizontal,
pear-shaped body, a sad snout, and forlorn eyes. [Dr. Seuss described him as “Everydog—all
love and limpness and loyalty.]"–Chuck Jones, Chuck Reducks